Yangzhou held the completion ceremony of the upgrading project and the inauguration ceremony of the Marco Polo Memorial Hall on the morning of May 30.

Wang Jinjian, secretary of the CPC Yangzhou Municipal Committee, and Tiziana D'Angelo, Consul General of Italy in Shanghai, attended the ceremony and delivered speeches.

Marco Polo is a world-famous traveler who spent 17 years exploring China and served as an official in Yangzhou for three years. His account, "The Travels of Marco Polo," is widely known in China and has served as a cultural bridge between the East and the West.

In 2010, Yangzhou began construction of the memorial hall to showcase Sino-Italian friendship and preserve Marco Polo's legacy in the city. In 2021, Yangzhou and the Consulate General of Italy in Shanghai jointly launched a project to upgrade the facility, which was completed after two years.

To date, Yangzhou has established sister-city relationships with three cities in Italy, and it is home to nine Italian-invested companies. In March of this year, Yangzhou established its Business Liaison Office in Italy, located in Milan.

(Photo credit: Yangzhou Foreign Affairs Office)

The opening ceremony included a donation session. At the initiative of the Consulate General of Italy in Shanghai, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and museums from Venice donated exhibits to the memorial hall.